ESPN’s digital properties in September generated 72.7 million unique visitors, according to comScore Media Metrix Multi-Platform ratings, the largest total ever in the history of the category. In addition to vaulting past usual sports category reach leader Yahoo for the top spot during the month, ESPN added nearly 15 million visitors from its August total to set the new record. Company execs credited the spike to the start of football, increased fantasy football participation, the continued growth of WatchESPN and the ongoing rise of mobile consumption. Still, company execs as they have for years put more stock in its consumption metrics, including 7.3 billion minutes of time spent by users on ESPN digital properties during the month. That figure is more than 40% higher than the 5.1 billion minutes of consumption for ESPN during August. “Seventy-three million uniques is great, but 7.3 billion minutes is staggering,” said ESPN VP/Digital Media Research & Analytics David Coletti.